Pennsylvania stadium plans urinal video games

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Play doesn’t need to stop for sports fans taking a bathroom break at a Pennsylvania minor-league baseball stadium that has installed video games in men’s room urinals.

The “hands-free” video game is played by directing oneself right or left in the urinals at the Lehigh Valley IronPigs’ Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The game is aimed at increasing prostate health awareness.

The video screens challenge players to steer their way along a snowmobile course, while trying to hit cartoon penguins. They also display messages reminding men to make an appointment for a prostate exam, Schaeffer said.

Names of high scorers deft enough to hit the target mirrored on a 12-inch LCD screen above the urinal will appear on other contestants’ urinals and on the video displays in the ballpark.

The “hands free” urinal players can go by their full name, part or their name or a pseudonym when their scores are tallied.

The urinal video games will commence when the baseball games start for the IronPigs, a minor league team affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies. The team opens its 2013 season next week with an exhibition game on Tuesday.

The IronPigs bought the restroom entertainment, described as the “world’s only truly hands-free urinal game controller,” from Captive Media, a company based in the United Kingdom, said IronPigs spokesman Jon Schaeffer.

While the games have been placed in bars in the United Kingdom, their appearance in the Allentown stadium marks a first in the world of sports, said Ed Gundrum, who oversees sales for the company in the U.S.

“They told us with certainty that it’s not in any other sports venue in the world,” Schaeffer said. The “p-controlled” video games, which were undergoing “calibration” on Wednesday, are in bars in the United Kingdom, Schaeffer said.

The games, part of a marketing agreement with the Lehigh Valley Health Network, are intended to remind men about the importance of prostate health, the baseball team said in a news release.